WDLH Branding and Marketing on the up

With under 2 weeks until the our Dorset holiday parks open, we have been finalising our marketing for 2016. I must say the last 18 months have been an interesting time and marketing has been changing rapidly at WDLH due to a three year plan to change our branding. Our teams have really come together with ideas and comments on all aspects of the work being carried out mainly by our Marketing Assistant James, who has now been with us for 18 months.

Before James joined us and being a small family business, we used to do marketing on an ad hoc basis, as and when we had time or felt it was needed. James spent the first 6 months of his time with us undertaking a study of our internal and external marketing as well as the industry as a whole and we quickly realised an opportunity and James was offered a full-time position.

I never thought I would see the day where nearly 90% of marketing was online, now including our price list and booking options…paper has nearly gone. I decided to write this blog today, not just to show you our changes and what we have been up to, but I was reminded of the increase in digital marketing over the weekend when I read that the Independant newspaper would withdraw its paper circulation and become the first online-only national newspaper come March.

West Dorset Leisure Holidays branding

So what have we done to develop the WDLH brand? To name just a few:

• We refreshed our logos at the end of 2015 that continue to be rolled out across our brochures, posters, signage, uniform and more
• We have created our first holiday brochure for many years, giving a great overview of everything we’re about and everything we offer. Please pick one up from a park reception or follow this link to view our brochure online.
• Martin’s Bar & Restaurant has its own webpage and for the first time the menu is available to view online
• We have new welcome brochures for each of the parks that will be handed out to visitors as they arrive at the parks, detailing park information as well as our recommendations on things to do locally for a great holiday
• We will soon have a brand new Holiday Home Sales brochure – keep an eye out for this! In the meantime
• We have been making changes to our websites to make them more user-friendly and interactive with more image and video content
• We are currently working on new park entrance signs and you will see signs around the parks gradually being updated and refreshed
• We are developing emails that automatically send to our visitors to tell them all the great things they can do when they arrive on their holiday
• We are reviewing the online booking process to make this as streamlined as possible
• We have created a Virtual Tour of Highlands End Holiday Park

Lastly, our ever changing social media outlets are being worked on constantly with enquiries through Facebook and Twitter on the rise. We are pleased to have reached 21,000 likes on Facebook and 6,000 followers on Twitter as we think it is a great way to keep in touch with our guests and for them to get updates and a ‘daily dose’ of Dorset until their next visit.

I wonder what’s next…